How to make your graphics accessible to the visually impaired people?

02 Jan How to make your graphics accessible to the visually impaired people?

Graphical elements in a website imply visual graphics. Graphics have to be smartly used in a website. It has a lot of impact on the users. Here are few tips of making your graphics accessible to visually impaired users:

• Make use of the “alt” attribute here. Every media file and graphic should have an alternate text which is equivalent to it meaning. The alt text should be very much associated with the graphic on the website. Give a small and informative description so that the information is properly delivered to the visually impaired user.

• If the graphic element is any hyper link, the alt text should include information related to the content in the link.

• Sometimes a small description is not enough for alt tag. In such cases, use the attribute “longdesc” of the image tag. This will redirect you to a separate page which contains the description.

• If the image is meant just for decorative use and doesn’t have a relevant name, do not leave the “alt” attribute empty. You can insert your company’s name here.

• Make appropriate use of W3C Markup Validation Services and check for all the empty alt tags on your website.